Erin's Hollywood Soiree-Oct 20

Erin's Hollywood Soiree is code for "Erin's Bat Mitzvah" and code for the most amazing party ever thrown in honor of a 13yr old.

I'm still a little speechless over the whole thing. Red (pink) carpet, 3 photographers, 4 plus videographers, a production company, everyone wearing mics in their ears, limos, black tie dress, Blake Lewis from last seasons American Idol as the performer....WOW. My first experience shooting a Bat Mitzvah will be very hard to top.

I was shooting for Vox Entertainment, who produced the Soiree and I must say did an amazing job. So much fun! They rented out the "Grove of Anaheim" and had a larger than life sized photo of Erin on the front of the building.

Seriously. Out of this world. Erin please invite me to your Sweet 16.

Rilo Kiley Concert-Oct 15

So I really need to work on posting images RIGHT after I take them...otherwise they end up getting pushed farther and farther back behind more recent shoots. So today I am going to post a bunch of images from "way back when".

In no particular order, I start with some images of the Rilo Kiley concert in LA last week. The Bird and The Bee opened with some hypnotic all girl slumber party type songs. I really liked them but there seemed to be an unusual amount of giggling on stage. Rilo Kiley kind of surprised me. I like them OK before the show but seeing them live upped my opinion. Jenny Lewis was so adorable and they played with much more soul than I had anticipated. I can't get "Potions for Foxes" out of my head.

I shot the images for indierockreviews.com. My friend Monti writes reviews for them and occasionally has a press pass that he graciously offers to me. There are few things that can make a girl happier than getting to attend a free concert, with a press pass, while taking pictures in the pit.....its a bonus when it's music you actually like.

That was a good night.

Lily Louise Born Oct 11th-Laguna Hills, CA

How amazing is my job? Can it even be considered a job if it's this amazing?

Yesterday I witnessed the birth of another baby. I was there photographing all of the "firsts"..and some of the lasts...the last moments before Heather and Scott's' family went from 4 to 5.

One thing that always amazes me is the amount of love I feel for these people as I experience these changes with them. My responsibility as a photographer is to observe, and so I do. I observe everything. Not only lighting and potentially good shots, but I get to observe as these new parents and grandparents go through a whole evolution of emotion. apprehension, fear, letting go, giving in, needing and feeling support, shock, delight and after a baby is born everyone is always in love.

When you photograph a birth the people involved can't help but be real. You never leave wishing they had opened up more. I can walk into the delivery room barely even knowing them and leave feeling like we've become good friends.. I love it. People in situations like that can't help but be real.

One of my favorite parts of lily's birth was watching her grandfather. He was nervous and uncomfortable anticipating his own daughters discomfort and the second Lily was with us, melted into a tender, cooing, tear filled man. He just kept saying, "she's perfect...she's perfect".

Heather and Scott thank you so much for allowing me to be there with you. Lily is as perfect as her grandfather says...and her name... Lily Louise...it makes me want to write a song for her. maybe I will.

Dave & Melanie's Engagements-Millcreek Canyon

Nothing quite like young love...or photographing it up a canyon covered in orange leaves.

Its been a long time coming you two, and in my never to be humble opinion, I think you two are a great match.

Dave I know it was almost like having to get a root canal to have a camera pointed at your face for over an hour, but was it really that painful. Since when is kissing, burrowing and holding hands painful? (OK, maybe in public, but NEVER at the cabin).

I dare say all the cousins will be jealous you were the first to take engagements up at the cabin, but I think they will understand, Dave being the favorite grandchild and all. Can we please share the title?!

Love you guys! Can't wait for December!

this is the reason.

As a lover of the senses..touch, taste, sight, sound, smell...I often find myself searching for the meaning in the tangible and the not so tangible. What gives meaning to my life? It has never been enough for me to be OK with the "doing" without the "why". I want it to mean something to me. I want it personal.

Many times in my career I have contemplated why I choose photography, or why photography choose me. I have wondered about the course I should take with photography and how within that given course I can make a difference, or contribute to something more, something better.

I am still on my journey to finding out all the ways I can and should make a difference with my photos, but tonight one of my reasons was set in concrete.

I was musing through my friend Nikki's blog and came upon a woman's blog. This woman is a photographer and has taken beautiful photos of not only others peoples children, but her own. I started reading and was immediately sucked into something real and something unmistakeably meaningful.

Her daughter Ava at the age of 3 died in a tragic accident. Her blog, started before the death, chronicles a beautiful life before and a beautiful life after. As I read and watched her photos tell their family's story I was..in a trance. I knew that these photos she had taken of her baby were some of the most important reminders of happiness, hope and life that she will ever have.

Read her story and ask yourself the questions that a story like that demands you ask.

What gives meaning to your life?

For me, one of my "meanings" come from trying in my own way to help people remember and cherish the nature of their lives. To document something that is real for them. To be there when important moments happen and try to give them something tangible as a reminder of the intangible things that can only exist and stay deep in the resting place of ones soul.

There is a Native American and Aborigine superstition that taking a photograph of a person steals a part of their soul. Maybe they are on to something. Maybe its less like stealing and more like copying or borrowing. Maybe its the reason so many of us are drawn to beautiful photographs. Maybe.